1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to games of chance, and more particularly to novel variations on the roulette wheel and wagers placed thereon. The present invention comprises a roulette wheel assembly comprising a roulette ball accelerator with ball launcher. The apparatus may be used to accelerate and deliver multiple roulette balls to a roulette wheel for enhancing the roulette gaming experience.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Gaming is ancient. Over time, core gaming themes and gaming rules have developed, which continue to enjoy wide popularity. In order to infuse some element of novelty into ancient games, gaming enthusiasts continually strive to enhance the gaming experience through inventive approaches to play. Roulette, for example, has been credited to many ancient sources, including Chinese origins and Roman origins. A more popularly held belief is that Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician (1623-1662) and physicist helped develop the essential Roulette device(s), due, in part, to his fascination with perpetual motion machines.
Whatever its origin, roulette has evolved into a casino and gambling game in which a croupier turns a round roulette wheel having 37 or 38 separately numbered pockets in which a roulette ball must land. Conventional roulette wheels comprise pockets or wheel sectors numbered non-sequentially from 1 to 36 alternating between red and black backdrops. Most modern Roulette wheels further comprise at least one green pocket numbered “0”. Further, in the United States (as opposed to Europe), most roulette wheels comprise a second green pocket marked “00” ostensibly for increasing the house advantage in the United States as compared to house advantage in European play.
In United States-based play, if a player bets on a single number and wins, the payout is 35:1. Of course, any number of other betting options has become available to the gamer, which options offering lower payoffs, including bets on multiple numbers in various combinations or ranges, on all odd or all even numbers, or by color. Over time, variants on the basic Roulette theme have evolved including electronic betting through computer stations, fully electronic ball spin/wheel simulations, stand alone games on a slot machine or through Internet gaming, multiple balls, and characters other than numerals, such as zodiac symbols and the like.
To be sure, the state of the art relating to roulette gaming devices and the like is well developed, and a search into the state of the art reveals that a number of inventive Roulette-based gaming devices are known in the prior art. Some of the more pertinent prior art relating to Roulette type gaming devices of which the present inventors are aware, is briefly described and set forth below.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,853,324 ('324 patent), which issued to Reiner et al., discloses a Combined Game of Chance and Skill. The '324 patent teaches a combined game of chance and skill which is a modified form of the popular game known as bingo. The game includes a circular playing field, a longitudinal alley extending therefrom and a ball-propelling mechanism mounted at one end of the alley for propelling small and large indicating balls along the alley and onto the playing field. The playing field includes an outer member and an inner disc which are rotatably driven in opposite directions. The outer member is provided with a plurality of indicia-carrying partitions which are spaced to trap the large indicating ball which is propelled onto the playing field but are spaced to allow the small indicating ball to pass through the partitions and onto the inner disc. The inner disc is provided with a plurality of indicia-carrying, ball-receiving pockets adapted to receive the small indicating ball which passes through the partitions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,222,561 ('561 patent), which issued to Whitten, discloses a Game Device. The '561 patent teaches a roulette type device whereby a predetermined set of word category cards are selected randomly one at a time together with spinning a roulette wheel to select the first letter designation for a word response by the players which satisfies both the category and first letter so selected. It will be seen from an inspection of the '561 patent that the roulette type wheel comprises a series of letters of the Roman alphabet thereon. The Whitten wheel includes a total of thirty-six lettered positions thereon, with certain of the letters being duplicitous. Whitten utilizes the device to enable random selection of a letter by his wheel to designate the first letter of an object from a group of related objects, e.g., kinds of fruit, etc. The subject user or gamer must come up with an object having a name that begins with the letter selected on the Whitten roulette wheel in order to win that particular play or turn.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,887,819 ('819 patent), which issued to Walker, discloses a Casino Board Game. The '819 patent teaches a relatively complex game, incorporating use of a roulette wheel and combines aspects of several different traditional or conventional gambling games. In this regard, the player uses either a card game similar to blackjack or a slot machine to determine the number of spaces to be moved along a segmented path, the particular game being selected by the instructions contained in the segment on which the player landed on the prior move. Each segment also contains further instructions, some of those instructions designating a further gambling apparatus and giving odds. These further apparatuses are a roulette game or a dice game, and the player landing on that segment may gamble at these games at the designated odds. Other players can join in the gambling when the roulette game and the dice game are played. The objective of the game is for a player to avoid penalties designated on the game board, acquire a majority of the playing chips until either all of the other players become “busted” or the casino bank becomes “busted”. Notably, no alphabetic layout for the roulette wheel is disclosed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,259,616 ('616 patent), which issued to Bergmann, discloses a Roulette-Type Coin-Operated Gaming Machine. The '616 patent teaches a process for operating a slot machine that works as a roulette wheel. According to the process, the gambler determines the amount of the stake by introducing coins then by pressing selection keys. A microprocessor determines the result of the game by means of random algorithm. When the chosen number is hit, the microprocessor instructs the coin distributing unit to eject the main prize. When a chosen number is hit, the microprocessor drives another processor with a random generator. The random generator determines, depending on a written algorithm, a gain multiplier which is multiplied by the amount of the stake on the number that was hit. The payment unit is then instructed to distribute an amount in coins which corresponds to the product of the stake on the number that was hit and the gain multiplier.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,553,853 ('853 patent), which issued to Sackitey, discloses a Game Apparatus and Method of Play for Teaching DNA Related Technologies. The '853 patent teaches a game including a selector for selecting a nucleotide from a group of nucleotides normally associated with DNA. By randomly selecting nucleotides and recording the selected nucleotides, each player creates a unique DNA sequence. The DNA sequence is used in one of a variety of game motifs to determine the winner of the game. It will be seen from an inspection of the '853 patent that a roulette-type wheel having a series of seventy-one lettered positions thereon enables play. Certain alphabetic characters are repeated, with several (Roman) alphabetic characters being omitted from the wheel.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,755,440 ('440 patent), which issued to Sher, discloses an Enhanced Roulette-Style Game. The '440 patent teaches a new Roulette apparatus comprising multiple balls and separate tracks for launching each of the balls. In a preferred embodiment there are two balls and two tracks, and a special apparatus for launching the balls. In one embodiment the launching apparatus is air powered, and in another the apparatus is mechanical with the balls accelerated by contact with a spinning wheel. In either case the launching apparatus may be hand-held or mounted to a frame and positioned to propel the balls into the tracks. In another aspect of the invention the wheel of the Roulette apparatus is provided as a dynamic display, which may be of several different types, such as LCD and dynamic holographic displays, and electronic player stations are provided wherein players may customize and place bets. In many embodiments the games are enhanced by audio effects including such sounds as balls being launched, balls rolling in Roulette apparatus, thunder strikes, and music. U.S. Pat. No. 6,164,647 ('647 patent), which issued to Chee, discloses a Casino Wheel Game System. The '647 patent teaches a roulette assembly comprising a lower wheel divided into a plurality of sections each representative of at least one of a unique number and a unique color. Also included is an upper wheel rotatably mounted on the lower wheel and divided into a plurality of sections each representative of at least one of a unique number and a unique color. Upon the upper wheel and the lower wheel being spun, the upper wheel slows to engage with the lower wheel and a unique number and color combination is indicated. It will be seen from an inspection of the '647 patent that a mechanically complex roulette wheel is disclosed. Upper and lower wheels may be randomly joined to select a specific color and number outcome on the lower wheel. Notably, no alphabetic designations on the wheel are disclosed.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,227,542 ('542 patent) and 6,663,106 ('106 patent), both of which issued to Cosmi, disclose certain Roulette of Improved Type and New Gambling Game Providing for the Use of Said Improved Roulette. The '542 and '106 patents teach roulette of a new type including two bowls coaxial to each other and rotating around the same axis and two small balls, each ball rolling around one of the bowls, where on each bowl are engraved data which refer to an independent event. On a first embodiment, the two independent events are: the signs of the zodiac, the numbers from 0 to 31, where the signs of the zodiac are preferably engraved on the external, ring-shaped bowl, while the numbers from 0 to 31 are preferably engraved on the internal bowl. On a second embodiment, the events engraved on the two bowls are related to one or more of the calendars used in Asiatic countries (China, Korea, Japan and so on). Furthermore, a new gambling game providing for the use of said improved roulette is described.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,406,022 ('022 patent), which issued to Nadibaidze, discloses a Method of Playing a Roulette-Type Mass Amusement Game Having a Betting Field with Zodiac Signs. The '022 patent teaches a method of mass amusement using a stake field simulating a roulette-type betting field with various-color stake squares with various-color information marks from 1 to 36 formed thereupon and the twelve Zodiac signs in the stake squares with digital information marks 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, and 31. Also formed is a flat image of a stationary roulette wheel having 36 main sectors and one or two additional sectors, with each main sector to contain, first, the images of digits from 1 to 36 with the images of the twelve Zodiac signs in the places of location of the prime numbers 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, and 31, and, secondly, two images of the hexagonal die with information marks being various number of spots: from one to six. Then, the players place their bets on the stake squares of the stake field, the procedure to be followed by choosing two pairs of random gambling indices by means of double simultaneous casting of two hexagonal dice.
United States Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0285336, which was authored by Ilievski, discloses an alphabetic roulette game comprising a roulette wheel having twenty-five positions thereon, comprising the twenty-six letters of the Roman alphabet and a double letter position. A wagering surface or table provides for the placement of wagers upon the chance of any of the single letters (or the double letters) or a letter of any of several groups of letters turning up on a spin of the wheel. The game also provides for wagers on the chance of a given letter turning up on two or more consecutive turns of the wheel. A further wagering opportunity is provided for wagering upon the chance of a letter within a given word or words coming up on a turn of the wheel. The alphabetic positions on the wheel, and corresponding positions on the table, may be colored to allow players to place wagers on a color or colors, as desired.
It will be seen from a further review of the above-referenced patents and other prior art generally known to exist, however, that the prior art does not teach a roulette type game having certain mechanical means for accelerating a roulette ball from a non-energetic state to an energetic state for launching the roulette ball upon a roulette wheel. More particularly, the prior art appears to be silent on a roulette wheel apparatus comprising a pinball type roulette ball launcher or a suction-based ball accelerator for maximizing a roulette ball's potential energy, and harnessing the roulette ball's potential energy to deliver a kinetically energetic roulette ball to a roulette wheel for enhancing the gaming experience. The prior art thus perceives a need for a roulette ball delivery system of the type heretofore briefly introduced and otherwise not shown or taught by the prior art.